4 Insider Secrets To Know Before Starting Your Next Demand Gen Program

Activate employees – yours truly included – have had the unique experience of generating millions of demand gen leads throughout their careers.  As a result, we know a thing or two about successful demand gen campaigns – those that actually drive revenue.

Here are 4 key points to keep in mind as you start to design your next demand gen campaign.  Some of these may seem basic, but you’d be surprised at how many marketers fail on these four critical and foundational steps for successful demand gen:

1. The Wrong Content: The absence of early stage, awareness-building content can be the biggest problem in demand gen campaigns. Companies usually send several pieces of content to a lead gen vendor. But many times the vendor does not thoughtfully select the best piece of content for syndication.  Did the vendor collaborate with you to choose helpful, educational content? Does the content fit the target audience? The success of your campaign begins here, and choosing the right content makes the campaign successful.

Many vendors push product-pitchy brochures and late-buying-stage datasheets (even ROI tools) for the initial (awareness-building) communication. Make sure the content you’re sharing is helpful in terms of creating a need and explaining how a problem can be solved.

2. Lead Pacing: Are you talking with a vendor who can predict how fast your leads will be generated? Are they able to “pace the leads” so they are delivered in line with your internal lead processing speed? If your lead gen provider is effective at what they do, they should be able to play to the rhythm of your inside lead development team.

3. Behavioral Intent: Can your vendor apply behavioral intent, so you target only those people who took recent, relevant action? Can they score the leads for you so you can “segment and prioritize” the leads? Leads that were created with intent data will outperform standard leads, so ask for an “intent” match when you launch your next campaign.

4. Conversion: You need the ability to track how your leads converted and moved down the funnel. Look at some past campaigns and pull out some leads that converted all the way to pipeline opportunities or closed sales.. Can you identify any trends in terms of job title, geography, or company size? You can then use that intelligence to make sure your vendors acquire leads that are in line with these criteria and are most likely to convert.  Campaign-level or vendor-level analysis is no longer enough. Look within a campaign to find the kinds of leads that work best for your post-acquisition conversion efforts.

Tangentially speaking, this type of analysis should also have you revisit any persona work you’ve done. If you don’t have personas defined, this analysis would make a great foundation to begin your persona work.

Keep this checklist in front of you the next time you speak with your demand gen partner. And feel free to share with us any key practices you follow to get the best returns out of your demand gen campaigns.